It's supposed to be easier to email Congresspeople than it is to pick up the phone, but that's not always how it works in practice. Just ask anyone who has navigated convoluted web forms just to voice opposition to a bill, for starters. You won't have to put up with those technical hurdles after today, though. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's new Democracy.io site helps you email House and Senate representatives without having to dig around their sites. You can even email all of your politicians at once, if there's a concern that stretches across both legislative branches. There's no guarantees that officials will listen when you fire off your messages, but you'll at least get to say that you exercised your civic responsibility.

No, this is not a repeat from 1964. Congress has blocked a funding bill amendment that would have allowed the FDA to review and approve electronic cigarette brands before they hit market. Republican Andy Harris said, "I think most people realize that they are less dangerous than cigarettes, and yet we're subjecting them to a higher level of regulation." However, the World Health Organization (WHO) is now set against e-cigarettes and early research has shown that vaping may have a toxic effect on lung cells. Democrat Rep. Nita Lowey, who introduced the original amendment, said she was "shocked" by the "objectionable" decision to kill FDA pre-market reviews, adding "many of these products are aimed at children."

One of GOP's rising stars has resigned from Congress, in part because his own Instagram posts have given rise to constant questions about his expenditures. Illinois representative Aaron Schock lived a lavish lifestyle while he was a government official, and he used to make sure the world knew that by posting snapshots of his escapades on his Instagram account. Little did he know that AP would extract location data from photos of his frequent travels in order to link them to instances when he illegally used taxpayer money to rent private jets. For instance, the news agency determined that Schock rented a plane for his trip to the Capitol in 2013, because he posted a photo of his Schocktoberfest fundraising event when he got back to Peoria, Illinois. The dates lined up with the $11,433 transportation amount he billed his office.

Rep. Aaron Schock (R) from Illinois has been spending taxpayer money on renting private jets, getting massages and taking his staff to sold out concerts, according to the Associated Press. And, get this: AP says it has confirmed all those times he rented a private jet, thanks in part to his Instagram posts. AP extracted location data from his photos and compared it with the records for each flight billed against his office. Current rules state that lawmakers can use taxpayer money to pay for their share of the cost for private flights (other passengers would have to pay for their share), but that was only approved in January 2013.

Remember last week when Speaker of the House John Boehner was raked over the coals for reducing a complex political argument to a series of glib Taylor Swift GIFs? Well, now it's New York representative Charlie Rangel's turn. The apparent congressman for life posted a direct response to Speaker Boehner's attack on Obama's free college plan, with a series of GIFs of his own -- these ones featuring Donald Trump. Does the congressman have some salient points about the benefits of making higher education more affordable and accessible? Probably. Are those points lost among a sea of head scratch-inducing GIFs? Yes. Like Boehner and others before him, the seemingly undefeatable Rangel (even in the face of multiple ethics violations and scandals) made the mistake of putting virality ahead of content.

While the FCC gets ready to vote on its new plan for net neutrality next month, a couple of Republicans in Congress are already showing off their own plan. Senator Jon Thune (R, SD) and Representative Fred Upton (R, MI) published an op-ed today outlining a proposal that they claim protects internet users while also spurring job creation and economic growth. They have 11 principles it should follow which include blocking, throttling and any kind of paid prioritization, however it differs from the approach backed by President Obama (surprise!) by classifying internet access as an information service under the Communications Act. It also mentions blocking the FCC from using Title II as a way to increase regulation over internet services by treating them as a utility, which some believe FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will try to do at the vote next month.

Politicians know that the best time to clamp down on security is following an attack on a nation's interests, since people are thinking more about safety than civil liberties. This time, the impetus is the recent Sony attacks, which US Representative Dutch Ruppersberger (D) is using to re-introduce a bill that was widely disliked by privacy advocates. Called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), it encourages the sharing of internet data between US national security agencies and tech companies like Google and Facebook. Referring to the hacks -- allegedly by North Korea -- Ruppersberger said "the reason I'm putting the bill in now is I want to keep the momentum going on what's happening out there in the world."

Just because FBI director James Comey believes his agency has a right to see your phone's encrypted data doesn't mean he'll get his way. Members of Congress from both major parties, including House Representatives Darrell Issa and Zoe Lofgren as well as Senator Ron Wyden, are saying that there's "zero chance" they'll pass a bill requiring that device encryption includes backdoor access for federal investigators. They argue that law enforcement has blown whatever chance it had at public support -- accountability problems at multiple agencies (especially the NSA) have led many to distrust the government's data requests. As it stands, the FBI is battling some fierce legal headwinds. The House recently passed a bill banning the NSA from using backdoor searches, and it's doubtful that these politicians will heed Comey's calls for more access.

Despite the FCC voting to repeal the NFL's decades-old blackout protection, the league still has the power to include sellout provisions in TV contracts. However, if it chooses to do so, a pair of US Senators warn that it could lose its antitrust exemption and tax benefits. In a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday, Senators John McCain and Richard Blumenthal urge the league to end the policy that's "no longer justified in today's environment" by nixing "rules that punish those same fans." The Senators have already introduced a bill that ties the NFL's perks to its complete elimination of the blackout rules in last year's Furthering Access and Networks for Sports (FANS) Act. "If the NFL fails to show leadership to finally end blackouts once and for all, Congress will be forced to act," the letter continues. It'll certainly be interesting to see how Goodell reacts, but he's got his hands full with a load of other issues, too.

We already know that the United States Congress (or the countless people it employs) can't seem to stop editing Wikipedia articles, but do they need to be such jerks about it? Case in point: Wiki tinkerers using an IP address connected to the US House of Representatives have been blocked from making edits to articles for the third time this summer. The first two bans were relatively short, but this time the block will stick for a month because a congressional staffer (or staffers) associated with the IP address made a handful of offensiveedits that denigrated transgender people. And the straw that seemed to break the admin's back? A particularly distasteful change to the page devoted to Orange Is The New Black.

Getting Democrats and Republicans to pass an act of Congress is the exception more than the rule. But if there's one thing both sides of the aisle can agree on, it's that the US policy for unlocking phones is backwards. Early last year, it became illegal to unlock your handset for use on other carriers unless your provider directly gives you the permission to do so. Thanks to moves from the Senate and House this month, legislation to remove this restriction is just a presidential signature away from passing; it's not a permanent solution, but at least it's a step in the right direction for consumer freedom.

Though nearly 150,000 people signed a petition last summer asking the United States government to allow Tesla Motors the ability to sell cars directly to consumers, the White House won't help. "We believe in the goal of improving consumer choice for American families, including more vehicles that provide savings at the pump for consumers," special assistant to the president for energy and climate change, Dan Utech, wrote in a response to the petition last Friday. "However, we understand that pre-empting current state laws on direct-to-consumer auto sales would require an act of Congress."

As it stands, state laws protecting entrenched automakers like Ford, Honda and other industry leaders make it a state-by-state fight for Tesla to open dealerships. The company most recently broke through in Pennsylvania, where it's opening five shops; that required a bill to be written, passed through the state legislature, and then signed into law by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett. Seriously.

Members of the United States House of Representatives and Senate -- or, more likely, their interns and aides -- spend an awful lot of time editing Wikipedia entries. Not just entries about themselves, either: the list ranges from autobiographical changes to this crucial edit involving President Barack Obama shaking hands with a minotaur. We'll spare you the obvious, "so that's what the United States Congress spends its time on!" joke (or was that it?), and jump right to the credit. A new Twitter account named "congressedits," set up by self-described "web developer/armchair activist" Ed Summers, scans for Wikipedia edits across a variety of IP addresses associated with Congress. Summers got the idea from a similar robot in the United Kingdom. Other versions have since sprouted in Canada and Sweden.

Congress' approval rating sits as low as 10 percent, depending on which poll you trust. So a bunch of engineers and developers came up with a uniquely Silicon Valley solution -- replace politicians with software. We're not talking about some advanced AI, though, so don't start worrying about Skynet just yet. PlaceAVote is a simply a digital polling platform, which means there will still need to be a human being on the floor casting a vote. The first two candidates who pledge to simply vote whatever way the internet tells them are already on the ballot in California, and 20 more are supposedly on tap for 2016.

It's not exactly what privacy advocates and most tech companies wanted, but it's something. The USA Freedom Act has passed through the House of Representatives, but it didn't escape unscathed. While many of the main components survived, other elements were lost to amendments or dramatically altered. One of the most controversial changes from the bill that passed out of the Judiciary Committee was a broader definition of a "specific selection term," which is used by the NSA to define their data requests. The original language allowed the government to ask for records relating to a "person, entity or account." What was passed by a vote of 303 to 12 on the floor of the capital added "address, or device" to that list, leaving the scope for data request quite broad. Obviously the original version of the bill had a much more narrow definition, which has led many privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and tech companies like Google to drop support for the bill as they feel it leaves too much room for abuse.

If you've never contacted your congress person then you might not realize how difficult our politicians have made it to get a hold of them. There are 535 members of the House and Senate all whom have some arcane contact form on their websites that obscure their direct email address. It's inconvenient for a single person to write a letter to all their elected representatives. But for organizations looking drive letter writing campaigns it's a nightmare. Individuals won't want to visit three separate sites as part of a push to pass or block a piece of legislation. And while there are services out there that can automate part of the work by routing messages to the right email addresses, they charge thousands of dollars a year for access to their tools and databases.

The US government may have opposed extensive net neutrality laws and regulation of ISPs in the past, but when it comes to online gambling, several politicians are calling for the ban hammer. If Senator Lindsey Graham and Rep. Jason Chaffetz have their way, it will soon be illegal to play slots on your smartphone. Today, the two introduced legislation to outlaw internet betting -- excluding fantasy sports and horse racing -- asserting that the activity is a potential national security threat, among other things. Gambling sites, co-sponsor Senator Dianne Feinstein claims, often don't screen for underage players. Supports of the legislation also cite the lack of oversight for criminal acts such as identity theft and money-laundering, and they naturally invoke gambling addiction as well. Notably, Las Vegas Sands titan Sheldon Adelson is supporting the bill.

Large-scale data breaches have become all too common as of late, and US Attorney General Eric Holder wants to do more than just catch the thieves. He has asked Congress to create a federal law requiring that companies notify their customers after detecting serious intrusions. Holder's proposal would exempt firms from reporting low-risk breaches, but it would also punish companies that either don't send a quick alert or haven't been doing enough to protect data in the first place. The would-be law isn't strictly necessary when 45 states have notification requirements in place, but it would hold corporations to a similar standard across the country.

Unfortunately, you can't assume that Bitcoin is legal everywhere you go -- it's safe to use the digital cash in some countries, but it's mostly verboten in others. However, you won't have to travel blind. The US' Law Library of Congress has just published a report (PDF) that outlines Bitcoin's legal status in 40 countries. In short, the currency mostly exists in a gray area. While countries like Germany and Finland have cleared Bitcoin for legal use in some conditions, most nations either haven't regulated it or see it as too risky. Don't leave your physical wallet at home on your next vacation, then.

The debate over taxing out-of-state online sales in the US has been raging for years, but there are signs that the often messy saga is finally winding to a close... well, maybe. The Senate just voted 69-27 in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act, a bill that would make internet retailers collect out-of-state sales taxes that Americans are already obligated to pay, but rarely do under a current system that puts the onus on (frequently unaware) buyers. Don't be too hasty in cheering or jeering the apparent conclusion, however. The bill's next stop is the House of Representatives, and the reception may be decidedly colder this time around. The act could be submitted to the President this year if it does survive the gauntlet, although a six-month buffer would likely push any tax changes to 2014 if the bill is ever signed into law.

In between watching giraffes fight and people who can't parallel park, you'll find a new attraction on YouTube this week: live streams from members of US Congress. Today, the video-sharing website announced that all federal legislators will receive the ability to tap into advanced features on their YouTube channels, and yes, this includes the ability to pop off about the opposition party at a moment's notice. Naturally, YouTube is no stranger to public service, as it's served up similar live streams of both the DNC and RNC, the State of the Union address, and most recently, Coachella. It seems that C-SPAN's turf is safe for the time being, however, as you won't yet find live daily coverage of congressional sessions. As a consolation, you can hit the break for the giraffes... which is eerily similar to watching Congress.

In recent months scrutiny has intensified over the involvement of Chinese companies in US networking infrastructure, and as a result Huawei announced it's through trying to crack the market. Financial Times quotes VP Eric Xu saying that it is "not interested in the US market anymore" after years of efforts to count US operators among its customers. Ranked as the world's #2 telecom equipment maker, it's now recalibrating sales expectations for the next few years down to $10 billion by 2017 from the $15 billion it projected in more optimistic times. Reuters reports Xu didn't answer questions about any expansion of its handset business, so while Europe may be looking forward to new phones, we doubt the A199 is coming over here.

In an effort to speed up an already contested $20.1 billion merger, Softbank and Sprint have reportedly agreed not to use Huawei network equipment within the US carrier's existing network. In fact, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, recently told The New York Times that the two outfits have pledged to remove Huawei hardware from Clearwire's network, too.These promises are likely a reaction to Congress' security concerns, which saw Huawei exiled from America's first responder network back in October. While Rogers is happy with Softbank and Sprint's new game plan, this deal is far from done. The two firms still need to make it past the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which reviews national security risks connected to business transactions. Until then, Dan Hesse may wanna hold off on any extracurricular activities.

Huawei's having a tougher time getting its network tech into the US, but Congress is apparently looking to shore up its security with other Chinese manufacturers too and has added a new purchase review law for NASA, Justice and Commerce departments of the government. Reuters reports that these branches won't be able to buy any IT system equipment without a federal law enforcement official giving it the okay, after assessing "any risk associated with such system being produced, manufactured or assembled" in China. The new restriction is folded into a 240-page spending law document and Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei has already requesting that the US to abandon the law. While it's difficult to spell out the repurcussions yet, it could affect more than just the telecoms infrastructure that ZTE and Huawei were selling, with the ever-expanding Lenovo likely to be buffeted by the same new regulations -- stripped down or not.

We should have known that it wouldn't take long for someone in congress to take up the fight to re-legalize cellphone unlocking. Those championing the effort on the floor of the Senate are Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) , Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) who introduced the Wireless Consumer Choice Act this afternoon. After the Librarian of Congress declared that unlocking a cellphone violated copyright law under the DMCA (that's Digital Millennium Copyright Act) activists kicked into high gear in an attempt to prevent or reverse the decision. Consumer advocates quickly collected 100,000 signatures on a petition, forcing the White House to take a position on the matter. To the relief of many, including the globe trotters and ROM fanatics here at Engadget, President Obama backed our right to circumvent carrier locks -- within reason, of course. This is after FCC chairman Julius Genachowski voiced concerns that the ban could hamper competition and innovation.

Anna Eshoo, a Democrat from California, is pushing a similar bill in the House of representatives, but its the bipartisan senate version that seems to be garnering the most attention. In a statement Blumenthal called the legislation "common sense, crucial for protecting consumer choice and important for ensuring healthy competition in the market." Obviously this is just the beginning of a long long journey and all the sponsors can do is hope and pray their sad little scrap of paper will one day become a law.

Update: It turns out that there's another bill that has been introduced in the Senate as well, penned by Oregon senator Rob Wyden.